Best Interest

Are you one of those lucky people that have too many job opportunities? For your career to thrive you need to make the right job choice. Let master career coach, Unre Visagie, show you how to make the right job choice.

Slide 1 (The solution to grab new exciting challenges of your choice)

We are looking at people that say, they have too many choices, and how do they choose? When we all work and invest together for the benefit of everybody, we will get more benefits. The key thing is to do first for others. When making these choices in your own best interest there is a solution where you can look at the exciting challenges and the great returns you can have from making your choices. You have to know what you currently do for whom. Why did you get into the position where you have all these choices?

You prepare and communicate to influencers. You engage and communicate the work that you enjoy doing and that is valued. Recently, with John, who had a fantastic position, it was very clear that if he keeps on doing the same he will have less than he can have. Referring back to Einstein’s old saying that if you keep on doing the same thing expecting different results it may be close to insanity. It is something to keep in mind.

Slide 2 (Know what you currently do for whom)

Let’s look at people who have too many choices and have the perception that it’s difficult to exercise just one choice and lose the others. When you make the right choice it becomes clear that there’s no doubt. You don’t have any feeling of loss, you move from those perceptions, because they are just perceptions, to the great spaces where you know exactly why you’ve made the choice and what you expect back. You can communicate clarity to everyone around you.

You have to know what you currently do for whom. Why is it so valuable that you have all these choices? Let’s look at simple ways to understand and discuss what you say no to and what you say yes to. That is where a man with a plan has all the benefits. ‘No’ is probably one of the more profitable words in the English language, as mentioned by Jack Welsh. When I sat with John and said, “Ok, let’s look at what you say no to” it was great stress because he didn’t want to say no to anything. What do you say yes to? What are the consequences when you say yes to certain things? Yes often means a three year commitment and where are you going to be in three years? You can never quite control it but at least you can make the best choice with your current insight.

Slide 3 (Prepare to communicate to the influencers)

Let’s look at those choices. When moving from the perceived boxes to the great spaces you have to prepare to communicate to the influencers. How do you prepare? You discuss it with people around you. You can start right now. It’s amazing what the people around you know. When John discussed it with people around him, including some of his clients in big mining companies and clients in big IT companies they collaborated with, he was amazed to find that his choices were even more than he was aware. However, they also helped him to understand the future of the industry, the future of the consequences of his choices with much greater clarity, factual and grounded in reality. When John practiced, he could approach the company he wanted, that didn’t even have a job at that time. He should have the job shortly, in January or February.

Slide 4 (Engage and communicate)

Lastly, John engaged with his clear, prepared stories. A man with a plan is welcome everywhere, a man without a plan people usually leave alone to figure himself out, they’re just kind to you, it’s not as rude as some people think. He approached companies with his clear, practised plan and showed respect and acknowledgement to the people he recognized as leaders in the broad industry, whom he could see was on the fast track. Why are they on the fast track? Learn from them. They guided him and introduced him to the right people that can give him the job. It’s a very straightforward process but people need that clarity.

Slide 5 (Start with the purpose, the why)

You need clarity of purpose, with objectives and tasks, dynamically calibrated with your own long-term career vision and mission. This helps you to align with the company’s long-term vision and you’re seen as a strategic contributor, which further puts you up the ladder. We find this is a very important process, like in John’s case, he really couldn’t answer this three months ago, now he can tell you in one minute.

Slide 6 (The right change thinking discussion)

This is the second tool amongst the list of templates we use that you can re-use with your friends, because they are free on the web. There are rules in every company, every industry, every client environment; every team has its subculture of rules. Understand those rules, influence them perhaps slowly, but don’t waste your time fighting and being angry. John was very unhappy with his current company because he could see he contributed more, but their compensation structure didn’t allow for him to earn more, so their rules made John earn less.

It turns out that he can influence the rules, we prepared him to influence the rules in the meantime, to say that I am experiencing stress, but show that I care, show that I respect, how do we go forward? He then proceeded anyway, without the rules being changed, he didn’t waste time, he played where he can make decisions. He played where he has influence and it’s known, he started contributing more and communicating better. He’s moving his line to where more becomes known to him, so his space for production grows and he’s now very much a strategic player. That is the other alternative, where his current company may treat him in a way where it will not be practical for him to leave. At least he has all these choices.

Slide 7 (The approach to engage people should be)

Let’s look at a simple way that you can use right now. John identified the people that he admired and why he admired them, he went to them with clear respect, recognition and acceptance. All of us love respect, recognition and acceptance. One of my favourite professors always said: “Applause, applause, anything for applause!” Everybody is a sucker for that. Use it, but be genuine, if you go with false thank yous you will have problems. When you have a plan, you’ve done your homework, you’ve talked to people around you, you’ve prepared, then you approach the people with open and closed questions. All of this detail is available free on the website; use it. The reason we made it free is that you need these tools to talk to people around you, it’s critical that you can freely engage the people around you. They can also watch the videos and do it free. We come into the game when we can accelerate you and add extra value. Let’s look at the website quickly. There are specific, measurable, accountable resources, time and rewards.

Slide 8 (careerdevelopmentplan.net)

When you look at the website, you will see the tools and the resources. We have organized each block of tools on the website to focus on a specific area of a stress or growth opportunity. When you look at your career choices, we go to Career Planning and Performance. To demonstrate the free tools that is available which John also used in his coaching. We’ve bundled them into big, logical groups where you can look at various career level changes, resumes and the smart goal setting, which I want to point out specifically. You must have specific, measurable, accountable resources time and monitor, planning, performance etc. Every aspect is organized into groups like this. When we look at approaching people with open and closed questions, it is part of that group of tools.

Slide 9 (I have too many choices, how do I choose?)

Having too many choices, how do I choose? Let us summarize the whole process. People normally have perceptions of difficulty of choice and the solution is: get more information, talk to more people, get clarity and get rid of any fears and uncertainties. Fear just stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fail just stands for First Attempt in Learning. Everything that we have learnt we learnt through trial and sometimes losing some skin in trying to ride a bicycle. It never stops, but as we go higher, we get more concerned about what people will think. We get more worried about coming across as someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. The process is simple and clear and it avoids most of those risks.

The process is: know what you do, prepare to communicate what you do, engage influencers and communicate to them. I find very few people can tell you their store of assets and their expertise. In John’s case, his top skill is probably that he has a very good interface, people enjoy being around him, that is a core skill for him. He was very uncomfortable to put that in his CV, so we got nice examples, now it’s in his CV. The other thing that he had difficulty with was his golden thread.

The golden thread leading to your key to success is simply where John made decisions in the same direction from a very young age. A service to people, a great curiosity to understand things, that’s what’s been driving him since school days. He never realized that he could put in his CV that he’s been consistent in how he made decisions. He had quite a few job changes, that is why we had to show consistency with the golden thread, this is built into the stories on the site. He had an awesome asset list that only became clear when he talked to clients, colleagues and friends. This caused him some discomfort, but he now has a very powerful story to tell around his CV.

He realized his external resources, the number of people who were prepared to help him and introduce him, introduce him to people who can introduce him, all of that and learning some skills that he now requires knowing where he wants to go. It’s all available, he just had to have a plan and engage. He’s building his own staircase and climbing it, which could be scary, but we explained that fear and risk could be managed.

Start with exploring, preparing, engaging and in the process you will grow like John did. Your job, company and industry must align while growing your asset list. Secondly, you must align your job, work and career. You are continuously in charge of your future; you keep on doing preparation, exploration and engagement. You will always be secure and safe, and a desired employee. You will get huge increases, like John, in a time when nobody around you will get increases. John ended up with insight, knowledge and confidence because he had a plan and a clear story. John moved from the perceived boxes and too many choices and uncertainty to absolute certainty about where he’s going next, how he’s going to use and grow his asset list.

Slide 10 (Business toolset, personal toolset)

Having too many choices and choosing comes to down the business toolset and the personal toolset that I’ve shown you on the website. Please watch out for the next Career Maker System email. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I hope you will realize the privilege of having too many choices deserve that you go and explore, prepare and engage these choices to get absolute clarity about the one that will work best for you. Thank you for listening.

2.1 PERSONALITY HISTORY

The complex uniqueness of every human being makes interacting and working with others exciting. Each one approaches his or her life and thus, his or her career differently. We all have choices to make and can respond to each interaction. With the right competencies, we can thrive by acknowledging human differences and uniqueness.

These days we have many career choices. However, how do you go about making your choices? Learn to choose carefully what you involve yourself in and how you respond to an activity and feedback. Always relax, think and respond in your own best interest and in the best interest of your group. Remember also that it is nearly impossible to always satisfy everyone, use your rational judgement to make decisions that will benefit the maximum amount of people. Grow your personality traits and preferences by choosing from your experiences. Each individual or group has some level of choice about whom and what to become involved in and with. You yourself choose your actions and responses to a certain degree. Master the processes to exercise your choice of involvement, choice of action and choice of response. The outcome will be that you will thrive. You will develop competencies in communicating with yourself and with others and will optimise your current personality traits and preferences.

You are aware of the following points. However, I want you to become even more aware that we differ from each other, have individual preferences and dislikes and can choose to change and adapt. When you operate naturally, there is neither stress nor low negative stress. However, should you stay in an adapted mode for too long, you will experience stress that ultimately becomes unbearable. Rather enjoy learning. Regard it as fun. Learn what you enjoy and choose work that reflects this enjoyment.

Personality theories have a history that reflects the context of the time in which they were developed. In this course, you will use this information as a guide to know and communicate your own traits and preferences better. There is never a finite test that officially reflects your whole being. Rather it is an exploration and discovery of your traits, current preferences and choices!

Module 1, Unit 2, Activity 1

Gain an awareness of the richness of models and theories. The freedom exists to explore, discover and choose for yourself.

1. Discuss the personality traits and factors among yourselves in the work group. How can exploration and discovery of personality theories and of your personality type be helpful in work choices?

2. Record your findings in your MiCareer Book under the roles of candidate, observer and facilitator.

Write about three sentences under each role. (Refer to Tutorial Letter PCAR01V/102/2008 Activity 7 to define the roles clearly).

In this unit, you will get to know your preferences, as described by personality theories. You will apply this knowledge in practical applications and in discussions with others. You can repeat the exercises and facilitate others in their exploration, discovery and communication of their preferences and traits. You will learn to show other people the vast number of choices that are available. There are many suitable careers for you and you will learn to choose the work best suited to your preferences. You should start having fun right away.

Learn how to communicate and apply your preferences or traits. Communicating your preferences contributes to expanding your choices since others will get to know how much you enjoy your work. As you engage with more people with greater ease, you expand your opportunities and you gain knowledge. Seeing as we are all different, it is essential that you are always aware of your unique preferences and traits. Your work and career could be to give others the opportunity to explore and discover their unique preferences and traits, to guide them to access identified opportunities and explore and discover local opportunities and resources for themselves.

Remember to breathe deeply and slowly, flex your fingers quickly and then relax! Our natural personality emerges when we are relaxed and thinking clearly.

Planning a career is a life-long process – you grow and slowly change over time.

So, how do we become adept at the very process of driving these life-long processes? You choose your responses, activities, work, your involvements and your network of support. This is a patient, life-long process like learning to walk and talk. Choose someone in the field you are interested in, get involved with them and learn from that person’s actions. Observe the person and understand how you can achieve your aims.

2.2 EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY

It is important to remember that there are many free personality exploration and discovery theories and tests on the Internet for you to use. It is your role as facilitator, to take your candidate to the internet and explore the suggested tests. Tests are simply a means of exploration and discovery where we are allowed to make our own choices and where we can enjoy the results and the new words we learn to describe ourselves.

The tests originate from many cultures, so I suggest you learn the words and the meanings from a dictionary.Once you have done this, discuss the concepts/words with your local leaders to improve your understanding. This leads to the best results. Enrich your understanding of terms and current workplace meaning of the words to help your potential clients better. The differences in meaning among terms might surprise you! However, please enjoy these differences in meaning and enrich yourself by making the additional meanings part of your understanding. You can even talk to business people, professionals and other community members to clarify your understanding. Dictionaries are a tool with which to further explore and discover wider meanings of the words and concepts used to describe your own and other people’s preferences and traits.

Keep in mind that your responses to these exploratory tests should be made within the context of your current situation. Your responses will depend on your mood, circumstances as well as how much you know about the current situation for which you choose the answers. In other words, you can do this exploratory test again in the near future and you will probably get slightly different results. Simply discuss the changes and differences to learn from the changes. This is a great opportunity for exploration and discoveries.

Record the activity as facilitator, observer and candidate in your MiCareer Book.

Optional extra http://web.tickle.com/tests/picperson/

Watch out for advertisements! Say no to all advertisements. Never send your email address without checking with others.

It is important to get in touch with experts – people who have gained experience and are recognised in their industry. Engaging such experts is a key method of gaining knowledge and experience and broadening your own knowledge. Keep in mind that this is a value exchange meeting; in other words, try to give the expert as much value as you gain. This can be in the form of referral to future business or by putting him or her in contact with someone he or she needs to meet whom you may or may not already know. There is a multitude of ways to make this meeting the beginning of a longer term value exchange experience. Be creative!

Learn from these professionals and keep your career guidance workshop and online exhibition in Module 5 in mind. It will be very beneficial if the expert can explain his or her field of expertise to your candidates/potential clients.

Module 1, Unit 2, Activity 3

Get in touch with a registered expert in the field of personality tests and psychology. You can use the person that you got in touch with in Tutorial 102 Unit 11 Activity 4. This can be someone who is a psychologist, psychiatrist, Human Resources professional or a social worker. Find a person working in the field of human resources. Show him/her what you have done and what you have learnt. Discuss questions with them such as:

What is the overlap and line between free discoveries while growing self-awareness, and professional tests with advice that only professionals may give?

Why did they become involved in their current career?

What can a person gain from doing personality tests?

What do they suggest you do in a situation of conflict?

Ask more of this type of questions – as many as five questions.

Carefully record everything the expert says and write it down. Put this in your MiCareerBook.

What are your thoughts about the subject?

You have to verify that you spoke to this expert. This can be done by taking a photo of yourself and the expert and loading it on your computer. You can also get a signature from the expert and scan it into your computer. Add the address, telephone number and email address of the person you spoke to. Note that you may approach anyone at an internet café or someone you know with some IT knowledge to help you.

2.3 CONCLUSION

You have learnt about and that people have different personality traits and preferences. You also learnt that you can apply the results in your own life and that you can repeat the processes by facilitating the same exploration and discoveries for others. You learnt about the tools of exploring your traits and preferences, but more importantly, you learnt the reason why this is useful and where you are going to apply it.

Your unique complex traits and preferences make you a wonderfully unique person. Your chosen work in any chosen career should be a unique fit and experience. The process of exploring and discovering your traits and preferences is a life-long one and this is the message you should give the people you guide. Your traits and preferences continually develop, adapt and change. So will the work you choose and thus your jobs and subsequent careers.

What others are saying:

Llewelyn VenterCurrent Professional Coaching Student

"Roughly 3 weeks ago I was in a terrible place. I was frustrated, full of fear, had run out of options, and felt I had nowhere
left to go - a really BAD space. Unre, within 6 hours, kickstarted a process of turning this completely around - through what
I like to think of as an "intervention" of sorts - solid situation coaching and making me aware of options I didn't even know
existed. 3 weeks on, and my life has literally taken a 180-degree turn for the better, I feel relaxed, in control of my life again,
confident and full of positive energy. The journey has just begun - here's to my coach, mentor and councillor - thanks Unre!"Click here to view my Linked-In Profile...